CULTURE CLUB
BREAKOUT CAMBRIDGE-HAILING CHILDREN’S AUTHOR LOU CARTER SHARES A SNAPSHOT OF HER PROFESSIONAL LIFE, AS HER LATEST BOOK – THE GREAT HAMSTER GETAWAY – IS UNLEASHED
Knowing your audience is vital for any book writing, but when it’s for children you have to go further and really choose which age your text is aimed at. If I was writing for older children, I would need to change an awful lot in terms of vocabulary, theme and length. It’s important to let the pictures tell half the story – neither words, nor pictures should make complete sense on their own – this is a partnership. As the author, it is my responsibility to visualise exactly how this will work and include any artwork suggestions. Writing doesn’t get easier – even though picture book texts are very short, choosing the right few words for a page can take days and drive you slightly bonkers. My writing has, however, definitely developed along the way. I’ve learned what will or won’t work, how important it is to be inside the head of your character before you start – and how to create those all-important moments of tension. I do experience writer’s block, especially when working with rhyme. I have discovered that sitting there trying to power through is never the answer – good ideas do not flow once frustration has set in. I walk away, leave it for a day or two, try to imagine the animation in my head taking a different path and eventually something will fall into place. Out now, The Great Hamster Getaway is published by Bloomsbury.
nspiration comes from absolutely everywhere – things I see, hear, smell or something else. Ideas just spark and I follow them and see where they go. Most don’t go anywhere, but every now and then they will lead to something fantastic. As a primary school teacher in my twenties, I loved reading picture books to my class at the end of each day, and decided writing was something I wanted to do. I just close my eyes and let my imagination run. As the stories develop, they play in my head like an animated film and I can get a good idea if it does or doesn’t work. Much as I would love to spend my days writing, it’s a case of fitting it in-between my other full-time work as a boot camp and mobility instructor. My day starts at 5am to get to an early morning session, followed by one-to-one mobility work and classes for older people or those with multiple sclerosis. My dedicated writing time is a couple of hours in the afternoon, twice a week. I’ll sometimes spend that time thinking, others I’ll be actively writing or editing with my publishers, then it’s back to work for evening boot camp. I’m lucky to have such a mix of jobs, which I love. I often have more time to write when on holiday, so have ended up writing all over the place. The Great Hamster Getaway was written in Greece by the
pool. I don’t have a lot of time to actually sit at my desk, so the majority of story planning goes on in my mind for weeks or months before typing my first word. I always have the main character clear in my head and the general story framework sorted on paper before starting. First up, I divide my page into 12 spreads, then see how the story skeleton might fit within that. I don’t really work with any of my illustrators – it’s more a case of the words being passed down a long line to Deborah Allwright, then her ideas are sent back up. PET PROJECT Lou’s latest escapade tells the story of a rodent runaway seeking some excitement in his life, with plenty of lessons learned along the way
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK AUGUST 2022 31
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